When Miami's LeBron James expressed frustration at some of the hard fouls he endured as the Bulls snapped the Heat's 27-game win streak Wednesday — some fouls he called “nonbasketball plays” — Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge for some reason felt compelled to weigh in.

This didn't sit well with Heat president Pat Riley, the former Lakers' coach. On Friday night, Riley issued a statement that minced no words: “Danny Ainge needs to shut the (bleep) up. He was the biggest whiner going when he was a player. I know that because I coached against him.”

This little feud between Riley and Ainge makes the prospect of another Heat-Celtics playoff series delicious to contemplate. It also conjures up memories of other NBA feuds, including one more involving Ainge.

The 1997-98 season was winding down when the Spurs played in Salt Lake City on April 8, 1998. Early in the game, Malone posted up Robinson and, as he turned toward the basket with his left arm high, caught “The Admiral” with a vicious blow to the head. Robinson was unconscious on the floor for a couple of minutes and taken to a nearby hospital, where he was given a CAT scan that showed no neurological damage. Hospitalized overnight, Robinson was out of action for 10 days. To this day, longtime Spurs fans revile “The Mailman,” who delivered such a cruel blow to one of the Spurs' all-time greats.

Danny Ainge vs. Tree Rollins

Indeed, Ainge was one of the most irritating players in league history, in part because he was super competitive and skilled. He was able to get under the skin of many players, but then he got tangled up with Hawks center Wayne “Tree” Rollins in a first-round playoff game in 1983. After Rollins threw an elbow in his direction after the Celtics' guard got in his way, Ainge tackled Rollins. Ainge ended up having to get a couple stitches in one of his fingers after coming in contact with Rollins' teeth.

As Jackson's record of coaching teams to NBA championships grew nearer and nearer to Auerbach's league-leading nine, Auerbach faulted Jackson for simply stepping into great situations, whereas he had built the Celtics teams he coached. “He's never tried building a team and teaching the fundamentals,” the cigar-chomping Auerbach told one interviewer. Jackson, of course, had the last laugh when he won his 11th title as the Lakers beat — who else — the Celtics in 2010.

One of the NBA's all-time great big men against one of its all-time best referees. Nobody seems to know when their feud began, but everyone knows when it culminated: With Crawford throwing Duncan out of a game against the Mavericks late in the 2006-07 season for laughing at him from the bench. Duncan asserted that Crawford had challenged him to a fight. Crawford was suspended by the league and missed the entire postseason that year. Still considered by many as one of the game's top refs, Crawford privately said he regrets the incident, calling it “the low point of my career.”

Though Drexler denies he ever had a feud with O'Donnell, acknowledged as one of the league's best referees in the 1980s and '90s, O'Donnell's treatment of Drexler in a 1995 playoff game ultimately cost him his career. O'Donnell claims Drexler started the feud over a call in the Pistons-Blazers 1990 Finals. When the two teams met on opening night the next season, with O'Donnell working the game, O'Donnell said Drexler made insulting comments he included in his game report. He also asserts the league subsequently forced Drexler to send the referee a letter of apology, a claim Drexler has denied. The bad blood continued until O'Donnell ejected Drexler from a playoff game at Phoenix in 1995, after which the league dropped O'Donnell from its referee roster.